SHE MAY BE KNOWN for a delicately dusky color palette that evokes Monet's water lilies or for her well-documented predilection for gilt furniture. But Atlanta-based interior designer Suzanne Kasler—whose second book, "Suzanne Kasler: Timeless Style" (Rizzoli), comes out Oct. 8—is concerned with much more than surface.

Her preferred approach to designing a house starts well before the blueprints are drafted. Ms. Kasler, who grew up largely in Indianapolis, likes to work closely with the architect to get the floor plan right and guarantee that she doesn't have to camouflage poor bones. "I want to make sure that the house 'lives' well," she said. "Are the closets big enough? Is the pantry big enough? Clients are often OK with having their living spaces not so big if we get those things right." Ms. Kasler, who has masterminded interiors at Tennessee's famed Blackberry Farm resort (in collaboration with founder Kreis Beall) as well as countless homes across the U.S., also designs a line of furniture for Hickory Chair. We talked to Ms. Kasler recently about what she's learned from Versailles, how she'd blow an extra $20,000 and the unexpected joys of designing a "basketball barn."

The best design advice I ever received was: to finish the house, down to details like choosing the silverware. Sometimes people who are doing it themselves assume that they'll eventually get around to finding the perfect chair for that empty corner. They often don't.

The best way to quickly transform a room is: by painting the ceiling, the walls and the trim all the same color—a technique I call the "architectural envelope." It really strengthens and unifies the room and "edits" it in a sense.

The most controversial paint color I ever used: was raspberry pink, for one wall in the dining room of a beach house. Everyone called me in alarm: the architect, the contractor, the clients. And I told them "just wait until everything else is in place." And it became one of the clients' favorite parts of the house. You can get away with strong colors in dining rooms. It's a room people walk by a lot of the time.

The hardest space to design well is: a room without any architecture—a vanilla box without beautifully proportioned windows or doorways, with no fireplace. If you get the architecture right, you can do less decorating.

The most versatile sofa style is: an armless sofa. It's so simple that it fits into all kinds of décor and doesn't take over a space so much.

You can make a tiny room look bigger by: not putting a lot of tiny furniture in it. I like to use just a few pieces that are bigger in scale. And for the walls: just one big painting.

When traveling, I've been most inspired by: the interior of the boutique Corso Como in Milan, which is full of black-and-white abstract graphics. The idea for the prints on the cover of my book came right from there. And I love the Paris restaurant La Société. It's glamorous but modern, and I highly recommend it for the people-watching possibilities.

The best wallpapers come from: Phillip Jeffries, particularly their "Geneva Grey Glam Glass" paper. Their papers always look so tailored and they're natural. I also love de Gournay's custom-painted "Askew," on blue silk.

My favorite design website is: 1stdibs. It's really changed my business because it lets us shop all over the world for really special antique pieces—like these exquisite Swedish late Gustavian gilt-wood side chairs that I reupholstered in rose velvet for a historical home in Richmond.

My signature design trick is: editing. Even when I think a whole room is done, I'll often come back to it and realize it is too much. Then I start taking things away. And yes, occasionally the clients disagree.

The most over-the-top request I ever received: was to create an entire basketball barn at an Indianapolis estate—literally a basketball court inside a barn, in the colors of Duke University, so we're talking a lot of stained barn wood. And they wanted me to recreate the American Bar in London on the mezzanine. But it turned out marvelously.

The most common mistake people make is: failing to put the whole design team—the architect, the interior designer, and the landscape designer—together from the beginning when they're building a house.

My interior design heroes are: John Saladino, for the way he layers muted colors so beautifully; and Peter Marino, for his attention to detail in spaces like [New York's] Dior store—a floor pattern, a chair railing. His spaces just capture you.

The design book I look at again and again is: "Dwellings: Living with Great Style" [2003], by Stephen Sills and James Huniford. They had a unique way of mixing antiques and modern design that just resonates with me.

My design pet peeve is: overdecorating. Even though I love Versailles—just the scale of it…that anyone would dream of something so grand—I like that I can take just one little aspect of, say, the Hall of Mirrors and recontextualize it in a much simpler space.

If I had a spare $20,000 to spend on furniture: I'd buy this 1980s brass Billy Baldwin bookshelf (shown above) that I saw online recently. Or a French Art Deco piece by Jacques Adnet. But I don't know how far $20,000 would go.

I collect: Eiffel Towers that I buy when I visit Paris. I have at least a couple dozen, all sizes—little metal ones I just picked up at the airport, a crystal one from a flea market, ones I bought at the tiny stands around the real tower when it is lighted up at night. I group them all on a gray-silk-skirted table at the top of my staircase and they bring back a lot of memories. But I think that collection is kind of done.

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